Dear Editor,
A number of hurricane-stricken islands have been busy securing much-needed recovery and rebuilding funds in order to get their economies moving forward to protect and save existing jobs, and to create opportunities for new jobs during this process.
Country Sint Maarten is currently at an impasse where hundreds of millions of euros are concerned for its rebuilding process. Both parties, the Government of the Netherlands and the Government of Sint Maarten, will have to see how they can accommodate each other during this critical stage of the nation’s recovery process.
His Excellency Governor Eugene Holiday during a working visit to the Netherlands, informed Sint Maarteners at an event organized by the Sint Maarten House, that damage to local infrastructure alone is US $1.8 billion. This figure His Excellency attributed to an interim report of the work group who are busy preparing the National Recovery Plan.
The United States Virgin Islands (USVI) is expected to receive US $800 million in low-interest loans out of a package of US $4.9 billion that the U.S. Senate passed recently as part of a US $36.5 billion hurricane disaster relief bill that also includes Texas, Florida and Puerto Rico. Also, over US $500 million is destined for California for wildfire damage.
The loans for Puerto Rico and USVI are intended to cover disaster-related revenue losses and to avoid disruption of essential public services. This amount is separate from a request made by the USVI Government of US $5.5 billion.
Where it concerns the British Overseas Territories of Anguilla, Turks and Caicos Islands, and the British Virgin Islands (BVI), all islands have gross national incomes higher than the benchmark set by the World Bank for countries to be eligible for Official Development Assistance (ODA).
On October 30, a meeting of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), will decide whether to issue an “emergency waiver” that would allow the aforementioned islands to qualify for the waiver for a short period of time for rebuilding funds.
In the meantime, the Premier and Minister of Finance of BVI Dr. D.O. Smith has secured confirmations from the Caribbean Development Bank and the European Union to support finding ways to fund the recovery of the islands. The Premier foresees a mix of grants and affordable borrowing to fund the territory’s reconstruction.
Dominica’s Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit has been in Brussels holding meetings with the European Union (EU) about areas of collaboration and cooperation where the EU can assist the island.
The current impasse between the Governments of the Netherlands and Sint Maarten needs to come to an end quickly rather than later. As each day goes by, it means another day of rebuilding has been lost.
The differences in opinion and the stand taken based on principle by the two governments should lead to a middle ground where the people of the country are the winners in the end, because the losers in the end will be the people and the country overall with long-lasting socio-economic consequences.
Sint Maarten is a resilient nation which has transcended economically other islands in the region over the past 50 years. Today, we stand at the crossroads wounded, down, but not out. #SXMStrong.
Roddy Heyliger
